First quarter revenue increased 14% to $14.2 million compared to the first quarter of 2024. First quarter gross margin increased 36% to $4.3 million compared to the first quarter of 2024.
Boca Raton, FL, May 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bright Mountain Media, Inc. (OTCQB: BMTM) (“Bright Mountain” or the “Company”), a global holding company with current investments in digital publishing, advertising technology, consumer insights, creative services, and media services, today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025.
Matt Drinkwater, the CEO of Bright Mountain Media, announced continued financial momentum in the first quarter of the year, highlighting solid gains across key performance metrics.
"We are very pleased with our strong and steady financial performance", said Drinkwater. "In Q1, revenue grew by 14% year-over-year, while gross margin increased by 36%, demonstrating meaningful operational leverage and strategic execution."
The Company attributes the increase in revenue primarily to the strong performance of its advertising technology division. "Our ad tech team has done an exceptional job leveraging our platform to attract high-value advertisers," added Drinkwater. "By onboarding premium publishers and optimizing inventory quality, we've seen increases in both volume and effective rates, driving substantial revenue growth."
Financial Results for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2025
Revenue was $14.2 million, an increase of $1.7 million, or 14%, compared to $12.4 million for the same period of 2024. The increase in revenue was primarily from our advertising technology division, and was driven by our ability to leverage our resources to attract top advertisers, which in turn allowed us to onboard premium publishers. This led to an increase in volume, as well as rates and overall revenue. The increase was partially offset by a decline in revenue from our creative services division, which was primarily due to a decrease in the number of projects for small tier revenue customers.
Advertising technology revenue was approximately $4.2 million, digital publishing revenue was approximately $583,000, consumer insights revenue was approximately $7.0 million, creative services revenue was approximately $1.5 million, and media services revenue was approximately $841,000 during the first quarter of 2025.
Cost of revenue was $9.9 million, an increase of $607,000, or 7%, compared to $9.3 million for the same period in 2024. Cost of revenue is inclusive of: direct salary and labor costs of approximately $1.8 million for employees that work directly on customer projects; direct project costs of approximately $3.6 million for payments made to third-parties that are directly attributable to the completion of projects to allow for revenue recognition, non-direct project costs of approximately $1.0 million, publisher costs of approximately $3.0 million, and sales commissions of approximately $259,000. General and administrative expense was $4.5 million, a decrease of 14%, compared to $5.2 million in the same period of 2024. Gross margin was $4.3 million, an increase of 36%, compared to $3.1 million in the same period of 2024. Net loss was $3.2 million, a decrease of 32%, compared to a $4.8 million net loss in the same period of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA was $816,000, an increase of 173%, compared to Adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.1 million in the same period of 2024. See the below section on Non-GAAP Financial Measure for a reconciliation of net loss to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA.
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